Year: 2023
Partner School: University of Chicago
Community Partner: Strides for Peace
Category: Gun violence//Community Health
Problem: Strides for Peace is a Chicago-based organization dedicated to supporting local nonprofits in their efforts to reduce gun violence in the Chicago community. By investing in these initiatives, they use a venture capital-like model to affect meaningful change. Strides for Peace invests in and works with partner organizations who are faced with bandwidth constraints. This limits their ability to internally document nuanced community experiences, which reduces their organization's ability to report impact. Yet donors want to understand the impact that their donations make. How can Strides for Peace effectively communicate impacts to various stakeholders?
Solution: Implement a “Story-in-a-Box” framework to communicate impact to donors while supporting partner organizations. This entails improving data collection by using digital tools to collect data and investing in storytelling that conveys the compelling stories that uplift partner organizations and highlight the mycelial network of amazing work that Strides for Peace is activating and supporting.